PeakD Ad Test #2 - New ads company and testing Opt-Out
This is not just about ads; it’s about finding sustainable ways to grow the HIVE economy, support content creators, and enhance the value of our platform. Every dollar from ads goes back into buying and burning HIVE, creating a positive impact for all Hive users.
Amazing Community Support!
We were very encouraged by the overwhelming support to test ads that came from the peakd user base. We were also surprised to see no comments on Discord or elsewhere complaining about the ads, especially considering how often such changes spark discussions or concerns in online communities. Perhaps because our users read that this was a test, or perhaps because you all know that the funds earned through ads will be used to buy and burn HIVE... or perhaps just because our users never saw the ads. Regardless we are encouraged.
OUR FEEDBACK FROM ADS TEST ONE
To be honest the first test economically would have not helped Hive much at all... not nearly enough to justify keeping ads it and we would have removed ads all together. Without great improvement this next test could be our final test. If this approach doesn't work out we may abandon the ads pursuit. However we have reasons to believe/hope that the changes we did may be enough to bring significantly better results that should make a good impact on Hive. We understand the site is operating with some limitations to ads (as described at end of post) but we think even with those we can have enough success to make an impact on Hive and HIVE.
YOUR FEEDBACK
We are adding logged in users into the test in part to get more data but also to get more feedback. There are many things we could do to tune the experience and perhaps to give some controls over the experience so it's not simply ALL or NOTHING. Instead of guessing what users would want we will let you share what you think would be helpful. Perhaps an ad size or placement could be tweaked to make you appreciate it even more... let us know.
Also we hope you have a very noticeable improvement of ad quality ... we have noticed this but our team is a small sample size
QUESTION: What is your favorite ad placement? And which one you will remove as it makes your experience worse?
A Different Approach
Our first run through test with Ads on PeakD for visiting users was very insightful and we learned a lot. Thanks to the support we've received, the insights we've gained, and the potential we see to help HIVE, we are moving forward with another test. We won't continue to test forever, ads need to make a real impact on the HIVE economy or we will likely discontinue. However we need to give ads a more fair shot by improving their quality and placement and try testing with users.
We still do not put ads on many different pages but we have added them to a couple of feeds as well as the posts themselves.
Working With a New Partner
In the meantime we started consulting with a new ads company. They have helped to identify what can be done to increase effectiveness of ads on the pages we have chosen to test. They have a vested interest in seeing us succeed and our experience has been positive enough we have switched to using their code meaning they'll be the new ad provider (note: they will still use mostly google ads)
Recap of This Test
- New ad provider
- Different ad sizes
- Different ad placements (you will notice a sticky footer ad that has a slideshow)
- Ads in topic feeds
- Opt-out option
ABOUT OPT OUT: In our Last test we let logged-in users choose if they wanted to see ads by toggling the option in their settings. This time, users can still opt out through their settings page https://peakd.com/me/settings/general.
UNDERSTANDING THE LIMITATIONS OF THE AD TEST
There are many factors on PeakD.com that limit the impact of ads. Some of the key limitations include:
- High number of visitors that use mobile
- High percentage from countries with low ad revenue
- High percentage of users that use Brave or other ad blockers.
- A major limitation was the exclusion of logged-in users in the first test. (unless they opted in... which some of you did)
- Also the content spread across so many genres makes it more challenging as well
- We also don't put a high quantity of ads on pages
- We also have only chosen a few types of pages to put ads on: Posts, snap posts and topic feeds primarily.
- Meaning we don't have ads on the majority of our pages: profiles, communities, badges, lists, search, publish/drafts, proposals, witness, wallet, dashboard, ai, polls, maps
- We don't have ads on the following feeds: "following feed", Feed in Communities, My "communities feed", badge feeds, User List feeds, Most viewed posts, snaps feed
- Also Ad providers tend to want their ads to be on certain types of content. (which can sometimes be highly viewed content)
Images created on https://peakd.com/ai (ideogram 3:1 aspect ratio)
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FEEDBACK
We value your feedback and want to hear from you! Whether it’s about the types of ads, their placements, or overall experience, let us know so we can make this process even better.
Sure, lets test. I have opted in ^^
@asgarth I get ads now on mobile and as I said I want to test it and opted-in :D
But this placement at the bottom when we are used to scrolling down on mobile is a bit annoying and you can fat finger the ad :D
How about putting it in the top? Between the posts and filters? Either as a dropdown or permanent :D
Should be gone now 👍
Yes. Neat. It was a little intrusive and I did read other peoples comments about it :D
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: I have personally noticed many of the ads are way more relevant, higher quality and many are brands that I am personally familiar with and respect highly. So that aspect is a win in my book.
As for the sticky ad at the bottom sometimes it covers content I want to see so if there was a way to avoid having the collapse that ad and still see those comments the ad is hiding that would be better.
I'm pretty anti-ad in general and use ad blocker almost everywhere but if I had to have ads I would agree that the bottom one that covers part of the post is the worst for the reading experience, it kind of looks like part of the content and it's pretty distracting. Also I counted 4 ads on my recent post, one even right at the top, so you see an ad before even seeing any of my content.
thanks for your input ... share any thoughts you have or hear from others. We will look into the bottom sticky ad and how to improve it.
I have been using PeakD (logged out) on my phone whenever I'm not home and so far the ads have not been bad or experience breaking.
So far it has been fine, now let's see how the test #2 goes.
As a feed-back, I had to opt-out with one account because of the sticky ad at the bottom that prevented me from using voting with several accounts. It was impossible to use this function because when I scrolled to go to the bottom accounts the sticky ad was in the way. When I closed the ad, it also closed the window for voting with several accounts. It's a small thing and maybe it's possible to change something in the design so that things are working again. Also it's probably not a problem for most users that don't have more than 20 accounts like me :-)
This is valuable feedback thank you. We'll let you know if we improve this aspect.
Adsense Ads are awesome. I make a fortune with Contextual Ads running on all of my old Blogger / Blogspot blogs and on YouTube. Enough to retire many years ago.
Sample : http://offgrid-life.blogspot.com/
Do you use adsense directly and configure it all yourself?
I configured manually on Blogger so that Ads appear on Side column, top and bottom header and between every blog post. To maximize profits. I set it up many years ago, and haven’t made any new posts since 2022…. Google deposits $$$ every month …. I earn even more from YouTube Shorts. … Ads run before and after videos and on side bar.
Damn! You should be teaching me all of that! :p
I used to have Adsense tutorials here on Hive but they all got downvoted to zero so I moved to Blurt.blog. ….
Ohh
Blurt.blog is now earning lots from Ads.
Does blurt have ads?
Yes. On every single Blog post. They are using the $$$$ to buy and Burn all the Blurt. So one day there will be less Blurt than Bitcoin. And Blurt will be worth more than Bitcoin. …
Blurt: https://blurt.blog/blurt/@offgridlife/6o4hnx-blurt-is-up-4-20-today-usd4-20-soon
Smart :D
Well, I use the Brave Browser, so I don't get ads anywhere xD
I love getting Ads. Some of them are very helpful. It’s how I learned about the Small BitAxe Bitcoin Miner … now I earn daily Satoshi on 10 watts of power ….
https://blurt.blog/blurt-1787181/@offgridlife/3nkgqg-bitcoin-mining-with-the-bitaxe-on-10-watts-of-solar-power
And you feel like thats worth it? How many Satoshi are you getting?
I am getting between 38-40 Satoshi a day…. But I’ve earned several thousand dollars from my YouTube videos on my BitAxe Solar experiments. And then I convert that old fiat into Bitcoin.
It’s like the Gold Rush … picks and shovels
Thats pretty smart :D
It’s the easiest way to stack millions of Satoshi
BitAxe is interesting. I didn't know that was a thing.
There isn't a place selling a BitAxe in my country :p But I could just buy it from anywhere in Europe though
Yeah … lots of places in Europe are selling the BitAxe … just remember … it’s the YouTube shorts … shared on Hive, Blurt, X.com etc that earn you the big $$$$
I would have to look into it more than I already have :D Gotta find my niche/something I like to do :D
I'm torn on ads. On the one hand I recognise the revenue it brings and the benefits it can bring my own business. On the other hand, I hate obtrusive ads, especially those that block my view of whatever it is I'm actually interested in.
Moving on to the feedback; I'm not happy with the footer ads, they really annoy me. I think the ad position I most like and respond best to is the way Brave browser does it, with a uniformly styled box at the bottom right of the screen. I'm a desktop user, so I don't know how that would be different on a mobile.
In terms of the opt-out, although it's more complex I'd love to see more nuance in the opt-out settings. A few ideas for this could include;
Ads should not be invasive, blocking the screen or preventing me from writing a post. Ads at the bottom of the screen and scrolling are ideal because they do not prevent me from reading or writing.
seems to be a recurring theme in the feedback ... we will look into a solution soon.
I don't like the ad at the bottom at all. For me it would be better at the top or on the left vertically. At the bottom where it is, does cause me problems when looking to comment.
I shall be watching this as with @deraaa we are developing a website under the @mmonline banner and ultimately will be looking at using adsense etc ourselves.
I was very confused and annoyed by the ads as I thought it was my phone being hacked or something lol but then I knew I should check with you before I got any further.
I think I would opt out on my phone but maybe do it on my computer since it’s got better real estate.
Interesting update though!
I would rather not have ads on PeakD. Buying and burning Hive is great; having the option to hide ads when I read or curate is also great; but the idea that people are going to be looking at ads while viewing my content is very, very disturbing to me. As @ juliakponsford wrote
To me it cheapens the site if the ads in anyway block or intrude on the content. One way I judge the legitimacy of a website is the placement and quality of the ads. If we have to have ads, please keep them as unobtrusive as possible, and well-sectioned away from the real content.
Would it be possible for content creators to prevent ads from appearing in their posts? One of the things I've loved about creating here on Hive is that I can share my stories and photography in a clean, professional manner, without commercial advertising, where the focus was exclusively on the content. If, before viewing my landscape photos, a viewer/reader has to first see some bizarrely colored ad for a sketchy gambling website, it completely demolishes any kind of mood or feeling I'm trying to create in my post. I can't imagine any of the serious artists on Hive are going to be cool with that.
I love PeakD, and I hate to rock the boat and come out against this ... but I really don't like it.
I think relevant ads between two posts is better. An ad or two as I scroll down the feed doesn't disrupt my user experience.
The current implementation that just floats at the bottom, IMO is one of the more obstructive ones.
While it's admirable that you're spending all of adrevenue on burning Hive I don't think that's something that's going to encourage people to attempt to bring in traffic to their posts from within or outside of the ecosystem (i.e. posh). Most aren't going to care that a certain amount of Hive gets burned because most authors don't have significant stake.
I think partially rewarding those who attain traffic with adrevenue, much like any other platform does, would improve things like author engagement in their posts and outside of them to attempt to have others check out their posts. More snap social activity and another layer that not many think of: promotion of posts by burning hive themselves. Other things it could improve and give more value to could also be good reblogs from other users.
I think you should reconsider on rewarding your users with adrevenue, even if it's just cents it's going to be better IMO. Not to mention the effects this may have on making users choose peakd over other front-ends even though that's not as important.
+1 to this. I really like this idea. If we could track posts that generate ad impressions and reward the author with a percentage of those earnings, it would create a form of "passive" income beyond the 7-day reward period on Hive. This could encourage users to create more SEO-friendly content, which could drive more traffic to the platform.
The two together could potentially also encourage people not to sell as much HP as they'd be more inclined to just dump the ad revenue instead and/or hbd from posts.
Well, that was part of the original idea. But creating such system will take time and we want to be sure it's worth the effort.
The main problem we noticed during our first test is that ads revenue was simply not worth it. With this second test we are trying to make it more consistent to better evaluate how to move forward.
Yeah making it opt-out is a good first step because I'm pretty sure 90%+ of peakd users never even became aware of ads existing, that's just how it is in slower times like these.
But yeah, good if it's something that can become reality later!
yeah gotta check to see what the revenue is like make sure it would be enough that it would be valued more than the value of the time to create the product which would be probably pretty involved to do correctly. So thus working on the collecting data. Let's just say that if we went with the data from test 1 there's no way it would happen... fingers crossed for test 2.
I am not pleased about Web 2 methods creeping in on Web 3, and I am also not pleased that Hivers with products and publications were not offered the first chance to invest in the platform in this way. Because of the nature of the crypto cycle, there is a danger that if this takes off, the temptation to dependency on Google will become the same bane it is in Web 2. I understand that we need revenue. But we need to remember who we claim to be as a community, and not set ourselves up to depend on the same centralized corporations we're supposed to be free from.
As a functional matter ... that ad at the bottom is horrendously in the way.
There are crypto and companies out there aswell if thats better than Google :p
Being better than Google is a low bar ... being more ACCESSIBLE than Google is a higher bar, granted. I understand the challenge ... but there IS a crypto bull run going on. DASH and WAX have projects Hive has worked with, and Cardano is running projects that have good overlap with some things Hive is doing. Bisq and Metamask are fairly decentralized as wallets for Bitcoin and Ethereum respectively, since the coming convos about a HBD-ETH-BTC bridge are out there.
What does those other tokens have to do with ads from crypto sites? xD
Every crypto project, IN THEORY, is connected to a site -- whitepapers, team members, etc. See Coingecko.com for what I mean. Click on any reputable crypto you like, and you'll see: each of them is also a little tech business. Just like Hive, they have projects they want people to know about. Coin Market Calendar is another good site to see this in action. SO: with those already working with Hive, we could easily cross-pollinate our marketing strategies.
Notice the ads! For me this is a great add to Peakd.
Just hope we will be able to follow somewhere how much you earn with them.
The bottom one was really intrusive and let to a poor user experience. You shouldn't have to dismiss am as the swipe it away. It should be one gesture/interaction
On mobile it's pretty annoying as they take a lot of the screen and you often miss press on it when voting, writing and so on... It felt like 30% of the screen taken by ads, worse than a porn site
Quick update. After your overwhelming feedback we disabled the sticky ad at the bottom of the page 🙏
It may take some time for the change to propagate.
Joining in with the others in saying the ad revenue for users is the most appealing aspect of all of this. Even if it starts off with being mere cents for most.
well here we shall see how much it could be by running the tests. Not gonna spend tens of thousands of dollars of programming time to create a system unless the revenue could also be that much.
Makes perfect sense. Just wanted to voice my interest in the ads side of things anyway :)
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I didn't get the experience when I was logged out, but now that logged in people are shown ads too, I don't think it's too bad.
I logged in today, I saw I think 3 ads while browsing so far and no more. It really feels very minimal and hard to notice.
If this format works and helps the platform, I'd be very fine with it.
I think that a strategic place for the ads can have a positive effect without getting in the way of the presentation of our publications. In my case, I think that at the end of each publication I could place a couple of ads that do not become an overwhelming visual burden or make you lose attention on the publication. Even if the ads are related to the community or topic it would be spectacular, something that should mean a little more work and dedication from this great team that continues to drive our work here at Hive 😎.
Today I accessed a peakd post on my cell phone without being logged in and one or two ads appeared, but I thought it was pretty cool that they didn't even interfere with my reading, I think it was a positive experience.
thanks for the feedback
No problem, I'm happy to help in any way.
some numbers would be interesting.
as for the xp, on the PC is fine, not really distracting, maybe my brain just ignores it.
As you changed something there is a weird page movement (i think when the ad reloads). it goes up and down, it is a bit annoying. Didn't notice that happening till maybe a day or two ago. time is a flat circle at the moment, so not sure.
yeah the stuff underneath it going up and down would be worth fixing if we continue to the experiment
the top one does the same.
What if you allow HIVE users to pay to get their posts promoted as ads? Since you are not earning that much from ads so far, using the space for HIVE users to promote their content at a fee could create some revenue.
That had been a thing for 5+ years. You can promote your posts on PeakD from your dashboard page.
Unfortunately not many users are interested.
It did not generate enough views for me. It was probably the case for other users who stopped using it. I was hoping for a way to promote the posts (or just about anything) in the ad space paid with HIVE or HBD. What I thought of was an alternative to Google powered by HIVE payments.
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